Ex-commissioner in El Portal pleads guilty to stealing funds for hotels and sex shop buys
A former El Portal city commissioner will serve probation after he paid back about $50,000 he embezzled from a law firm for stays in hotels, rides all over town and purchases at a Hialeah sex-toy shop.
Harold Mathis Jr., 47, pleaded guilty Friday to a host of felonies, including grand theft, organized scheme to defraud and forgery.
He’ll serve five years of probation and must complete 100 hours of community service and anti-theft classes, and undergo mental-health evaluations. He was granted a “withhold of adjudication,” which means he won’t technically be a convicted felon, but the case will remain on his record and cannot be sealed.
During a Zoom court hearing on Friday, his former boss, Miami criminal defense lawyer Mycki Ratzan, urged him to seek treatment for the drug problem he blamed for his behavior.
“You were family and the betrayal just hurts in a deep, deep place,” Ratzan said, adding: “I don’t know if I’ll ever wrap my head around it ... what a fall from grace.”
Ratzan and her law partner, Jude Faccidomo, approved the plea deal for their former paralegal.
“The victims were given their restitution in full,” Miami-Dade prosecutor Stacy Cleveland told Circuit Judge Richard Hersch.
Mathis became a councilman in the small Northeast Miami-Dade village in 2006. He was appointed to fill the vacancy created when former mayor Audrey Edmonson resigned to accept a seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission. He served until 2012, taking a two-year break before winning election in 2014.
Florida’s governor suspended Mathis after his arrest in December 2019, although his arrest was not related to his work in El Portal. While suspended, Mathis chose not seek reelection, and his seat was filled this month.
Prosecutors said Mathis used the firm’s credit card for purchases at Caliente Adult Superstore in Hialeah and Sensation Video, as well as stays at Hotel Gaythering, Cowshed Spa, Hotel Aladdin and the Estancia Hotel. Some of the stays were only for a few hours.
“Additional charges included Royal Caribbean cruises, airline tickets, bar, grocery stores, and late night to early morning Uber and Lyft rides,” according to an arrest warrant.
The theft was uncovered by lawyers for the firm, Ratzan & Faccidomo, after Mathis abruptly quit when confronted about his poor performance. He later “sobbed and confessed that he had used the law firm’s Capitol One credit card for personal use and concealed his activity by altering the monthly statements,” according to an arrest warrant.
Mathis paid back $1,400 and even offered to deed over his home. But he made no more payments and the offer to turn over the house never materialized.
The investigation revealed that Mathis had misused the credit card — and presented doctored paper statements to his bosses — for more than two years. At least 20 checks cut by Mathis also had forged signatures, prosecutors said.
Mathis was represented by defense lawyer Bijan Sebastian Parwaresch.
Miami Herald staff writer Aaron Leibowitz contributed to this report.
